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05 December 2009

I made a wedding profile and website for Luke and I on TheKnot.com tonight! It was SO much fun and now our friends and family can keep up with us on our engagement journey. Please feel free to check it out! I have a lot to add to the website and I'll be updating it ALL THE TIME, but for now, I'm really excited. And I'm even more excited to be the future Mrs. Luke Riley Hinton!!

01 December 2009

After four and a half years of dating, Luke and I are engaged! He proposed last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, which also happened to be my mother's birthday:) It was the worst/best kept secret EVER because I couldn't let any of my Baylor friends know until last night when I "passed the candle" at our last Tri Delta meeting of the semester (perfect timing baby!). I had been keeping this secret from my friends after almost a week! So, want to hear how it happened? Oh yes you do...

[Preface: Two weeks ago, Luke was in a bad motorcycle accident and was life flighted to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Texas. He was in the hospital for three days, the worst days of my life.He had surgery on his left knee, broke his left pinky, and had a lot of road rash. Praise the Lord, he lived to tell about it. The bike, not so much. Needless to say, we had A LOT to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday.]

So, I went down to Corpus Christi last Tuesday for the first couple of days of my Thanksgiving break. All day Tuesday, Luke and I hung out, ran errands, and just spent some time together. Towards the end of the evening he mentioned that his left leg was really stiff and sore and how he wanted to just be active again. I suggested that the next morning we get up and go for a walk before his 1 p.m. class, just to stretch out his knee and get him feeling more mobile. The rest of that night, I was talking about all we had to do to get ready for Thanksgiving Wednesday night at his aunt's house, but Luke kept reminding me, "But we're going for a walk, remember!" I should have caught on then:)

Also that evening, Luke said he needed to step outside the house and talk to "his mom" because some kind of family issue was going on, which was not true. He was actually on the phone with MY mother, letting her know that he was going to do it Wednesday morning. Once again, I didn't catch on to anything.

The next morning, we got up, got dressed, and went for our walk. We drove down to the bay front, parked at Oleander Point, and walked down towards Cole Park. Once we got down to the park, we turned around and headed back. I was ready to leave but Luke said, "Why don't we go sit over there on that bench for a little bit?" I felt his pockets and giggled. He said, "You want that ring so bad, don't you?" I told him no, but that he doesn't ever want to just "sit on a bench" and enjoy the morning, so come on! We just laughed about it Then, I went to the trunk to get a couple of blankets for us to wrap around ourselves because the morning was a little chilly on the water; he came with me to get the blankets. When I opened the trunk to pull out the blankets, he pulled out a picnic basket I did not know he had snuck into my car.

At this point, I swore in my mind that I just KNEW he was going to propose! He started pulling out the the basket an amazing breakfast of quiche, fruit, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and milk. He had even brought place settings, silverware, a white rose for the table, and a digital camera. Ok, now I'm a smart woman and I've been dating this man for four and a half years, I can put two and two together. All I can hope now is that he won't propose while I have quiche in my mouth!

At the end of our breakfast, Luke asks me if I'm ready to pack everything up and head back and I'm thinking "Whaaaaaatt?? Isn't this guy going to propose?? Oh well, this was still a cute, sweet breakfast..." So, we pack it all up and Luke asks me if I can come to his side of the table and sit by him. I move over towards him and we get cuddly under one of the big blankets from my car. We're just snuggling at this point and after a couple of minutes, he begins with, "Well, I have a couple things I want to tell you..." He said some really sweet, precious words that I'll hide in my heart forever and then he asked me to marry him! I think I was holding my breath the whole time because I practically breathed the word "YES!"

Later he told me that his motorcycle accident had been the reason he decided to propose over Thanksgiving break instead of waiting until Christmas or even New York next semester. He told me that living through that accident made him realize, even more than he already knew, that he was ready to make me his wife. He had bought the ring the day after they let him out of the hospital and called my dad to ask his blessing only days before proposing. It's all so incredible:)

I had to keep the proposal from all of my friends in Waco until I could pass the candle, which I did last night finally, at our last Tri Delta meeting of the year. However, I did get to tell our families and a few select friends from camp. It was the BEST telling my roomies I was engaged Sunday night when I got back to Waco from the break! Catherine practically jumped on me and we almost fell off the couch, ha! Passing the candle was everything I'd always hoped it would be and now I can tell the world that I am the future Mrs. Luke RIley Hinton!!